Well, our first five days in the Prescott National Forest at the Hilltop Campground have certainly been busy and eventful. After boondocking in the desert for so long with no close neighbors, it’s been a bit of an adjustment getting used to the sounds of people shouting at each other, dogs barking and generators running. But the setting is so pretty, it makes it worthwhile to put up with some minor annoyances. (Yeah, we’re just old and cranky!)
Our little solar farm at our campsite in Hilltop Campground
We arrived here on Monday, and on Tuesday it rained most of the afternoon and evening. I took a short hike on Wednesday morning, but otherwise we didn’t do much. I was just starting to come down with my usual springtime Arizona crud (sore throat and sinus drainage), so I haven’t felt all that great all week. About all I want to do in the afternoons right now is nap.
We met the campground mascot, a ginger tabby that we have named Rusty. He just showed up at our screen door on Wednesday morning, and then decided to climb all over our rig–trying to impress Maggie and Molly, I guess, but they weren’t having anything to do with him. The camp host, Warren, told me that the kitty wandered up to their camp out of the woods about four years ago, and they adopted each other. Rusty is allowed to roam free, so he visits all the campsites and is very friendly. However, I did chase him away one afternoon when he started stalking a baby rabbit in the brush next to our campsite. The poor little rabbit would run from bush to bush with Rusty hot on its heels. I was afraid I would be psychologically scarred for life if I witnessed Rusty catching that bunny rabbit, so I chased him off. Hopefully the little rabbit found its way home.
Rusty trying to convice Maggie to come out and play. She just hissed at him.
On Thursday morning, we received a call letting us know our new custom mattress had arrived at the Fedex facility in Prescott and was ready for pickup. Our first challenge was finding the facility. There is a lot of new construction going on in Prescott and the streets have been added to Google Maps, but many of them are closed to traffic as they really don’t go anywhere right now. But we finally managed to find the facility and load up our new mattress, which was compressed into a tight jellyroll and packed in a cardboard box.
Our new mattress in the cardboard box, sitting on the old mattress.
When we got back to the rig, we first had to get the old mattress outside where we laid it on the picnic table (so glad the weather was nice that day!). The next step was to unpack the new mattress and let it expand. We were told to unpack it directly onto the bed platform, but the space was too tight to maneuver that big jellyroll, so we took it back outside and unpacked it on top of the old mattress. It quickly expanded, and then we wrestled it back into the RV and got it squeezed between the walls and onto the platform.
The new mattress in place. Fits perfectly!
Our old mattress was about 5″ high at its highest point, which was around the edges. The middle of the old mattress had compressed to where it was maybe 3″ thick at most. The new mattress is 8″ thick and is SO comfortable. Since it’s only a full size instead of a queen, we need every inch of real estate available for Andy and myself and two cats. It’s nice to finally be able to sleep closer to the edge of the mattress without rolling back into a “bowl” in the middle.
After getting the new mattress set up, we loaded the old one into the back of the truck and hauled it over to the Prescott waste transfer station, where we paid $11 to dispose of it. I suppose we could have just thrown it into the dumpster here in the campground, but we didn’t want to be THAT kind of camper or RVer.
Saying goodbye to the old mattress at the city dump.
Afterwards, we drove into historic downtown Prescott and had lunch at a Thai restaurant, followed by some ice cream at Frannie’s. We figured out that it’s been over eight years since we’ve been to downtown Prescott–a lot has changed, but it still has a familiar vibe.
So yesterday (Friday), the campground had filled up completely with campers looking forward to a long holiday weekend. There was a large group that took at least three spaces across from us. They had lots of kids and lots of dogs, including four beagles. It wasn’t exactly peaceful and quiet, but it was okay and everyone seemed to be having a good time and behaving themselves.
I still wasn’t feeling great, so I was taking an afternoon nap when Andy woke me up a little after 4:00 to let me know that the campground was being evacuated. A sheriff’s deputy had stopped by to let us know that there was a wildfire a few miles away at Lynx Lake, so they were evacuating all the campgrounds in the area as a precaution.
Andy packing up the outdoor gear for evacuation.
Fortunately, it doesn’t take us long to get things stowed away for moving. Within a half hour we were packed up and ready to go, and that wasn’t even rushing it. We decided to go to Walmart and stay overnight in their parking lot until things got sorted out and we could decide what to do next.
We found a level spot at Walmart among all the other RVs and campervans that were already parked there. I had posted the news to our Instagram and Facebook accounts, and we had received a kind offer of a place to stay from our friends John and Helen in Yarnell. But around 6:00, just as we were cooking dinner, a fellow RV evacuee stopped by our door to let us know that they were letting people back into the campgrounds.
Our temporary boondocking spot in the Walmart parking lot
We finished dinner, and then I drove the pickup back up to the campground (just over four miles away) to check out the situation. The route up to the campground, Walker Road, had been reopened, but I noticed that they still had a few of the entrances to the Lynx Lake campgrounds blocked off. There was quite a bit of smoke hanging in the air in the valleys along the way. When I reached the entrance to Hilltop Campground where we were staying, the entrance was open.
I drove back to our loop and found it almost totally abandoned. The camp host was still there, and I verified with him that it was all right to return. I called Andy and told him to bring the rig back to the campground. After I spoke to Andy, I met Lloyd who is a traveler from Florida who is camping out here without a tent or a vehicle. (From what we’re told, he flies into Phoenix every summer, takes the shuttle to Prescott and then just camps out in the mountains for the summer.) Nice guy, just a little eccentric I guess. Anyway, he didn’t evacuate, and we had a nice conversation while I waited for Andy to get back to camp.
Almost dark, returning to a nearly-empty campground
By the time he arrived, it was almost dark, so we did a minimal setup, not bothering with the solar panels. Our next door neighbors, Tom and Judy, showed up just after we got things set up. They had driven down to Phoenix for the day to pick up their grandkids for the weekend, so their camper and all their gear was still sitting right where they had left it. They weren’t aware of the evacuation, so they were quite surprised when they came driving back into an almost-empty campground after dark.
So last night it was just us, Tom and Judy, Lloyd, and the camp host/hostess here in the campground. It was so quiet!! But this morning it has been quite busy. Technically, the campground is “full” as all of the spaces have been paid for for the entire weekend. But people come driving through and see the empty spaces and think the space is available. A few more of the evacuees have returned this morning, but most have not. I’m not sure how long the camp host will hold these empty spaces before he starts letting new campers use them.
We had paid for five nights in our spot, which meant that our time was up this morning. But we decided we like it here enough to stay longer, so we went ahead and paid through the 29th (14 days total which is the limit). We are enjoying being camped so close to Prescott with all the shopping available–Costco, Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, just to name a few–as well as all the sightseeing, geocaching and hiking opportunities. Now if I can just shake this crud and get to feeling like doing some of those things!
This morning we went to the local farmers’ market, looking for some local honey. I’ve found that it helps my allergies if I can take a spoonful each day, but it has to be local to the area. Surprisingly, we didn’t find any at the farmers’ market, but wound up getting some at Sprouts instead.
The latest update on the fire is that it is 80% contained. Hopefully the wind doesn’t pick up and drive it this way–we really don’t want to have to evacuate again.
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Safe travels!
